Carpathia - The Rise and Fall of Romania
This is a walkthough guide retelling how I created the Romanian Empire (yes not Roman but Romanian). This started in 1066 and concluded with the rise of the Timurids. Introduction The aim of this game was to: yoloso #Survive #Create a world power to be readable on the map Following this train of thought. I decided to choose a place that almost always is taken or abused by the powers surrounding it: Wallachia. Now in the 1066 Start Wallachia does not exist (yet). In its place you can find numerous tribes. In the ruler designer I created by dynasty and character with moderate traits (he did have quick but was also a leaper) and a change of culture to Vlach (the main reason for using the designer). Starting Out This was where most of the action occured in the first 100 years. Now initial problems were that my primary title had no de jure duchies/counties. This therefore meant that any lost lands coundn't be reclaimed. My second major issue was the lack of cash flowing. I was tengri, not of the same culture. Generally almost everything that could be wrong was likely going to happen. My first act was to call all levies (those who would give them to me). Positioning them on one of my vassals I began to banish/reclaim all titles that my vassals held. An interesting point is that if troops of significant numbers are placed on interested county, the AI will almost always realise defeat and hand the title over to you. Now if this practice is repeated for every vassal (county holders and above) Then yes all those barons and mayors will be pretty pissed off with you for breaking the title contracts and holding too many duchies, they won't rebel and most won't be your under your vassalship when you give your numerous titles to your newly created nobles that you've called. This is exactly what I did. Now I had all my vassals as the same culture and extreamly happy that I'd given them a title. This had taken roughly a year to complete. A few years later disaster struck. in the year of 1070, the Eastern Roman Empire sent their patriarch to convert me to orthodoxy. I flatly refused and to further add insult to injury I executed their level 19 patriarch to send a message. Their response was not what I was looking for. Declaring a holy war upon my pagan lands I began to lose everything (even with pagan attrition) conceding defeat I converted to orthodoxy which made my Russian neighbors very happy to see. Luckily I didn't lose any land (though devastated) and converting my vassals wasn't difficult since they were all pretty happy with my anyway. This disaster worked into my favor because I could now convert my fellow pagans in cumania to my religion and control. In 1090, civil war in Cumania proved to be this perfect moment. I quickly regrouped my army and conqured all the cuman land untill reaching the Crimea. This is where I decided to consolidate and build. This gave me enough income and duchies to create the Kingdom of Wallachia, which I decided (using the new naming DLC) to rename "Romania" after the modern country living in that area. For the next 60-70 years I rebuild the devastaded economy and made my capital into a economic/technological powerhouse, only to be rivaled by the Italian states. This was done by building castle towns and other money makers in almost all of my provinces, increasing my vassal taxes (while relaxing levies) and finally creating the republic of Crimea. Now the point of this was to have a high taxable vassal (something that republics are great for), building the costal economy (trade posts are great for increasing the economy in provinces) as well as having ambitious republics expanding the land that was to be known as the Kingdom of Romania. Mid 1100s to the Mongols After much time increasing my Kingdom's wealth and technology (through investments), several developments had occured in the surrounding area. Primarily my kingdom now had allies in Georgia and the newly formed orthodox Alania, and had both under my dynastic control. This came about by accident where I had matrimonially married my daughters (grand daughters of my original character) to the second and third sons of Georgia and Alania respectivly. Coincidentally these sons both became the kings through sibling deaths and by 1160 both were several generations into the dynasty Vache (my dynastic name). Other developments were: #The Byzantines had repelled the Seljuks and also expanded into the areas surrounding Antioch. #Finland had formed as orthodox (through Russian Princes). #Cumania had become a shadow of its formor self with Ruthiena and Alania having control over sizable portions of the Tengri powerhouse. #Hungary had been absorbed into the HRE and became a de jure part of the empire in 1206. #The Crimean Republic was quite powerful (after 20 years attempting to make trade technology available to them). They had control over trading nodes in the Black sea, Constantinople and into the Greek islands. They had also taken some of the Bulgarian costal provinces directly south of my position during civil wars. #Catholic crusaders had failed to conqure the holy lands. The main activities that occured in the 12th Century were the increase in Rupublican power (which only became and issue every new king of Romania). Increase in retinues and buildings became common mainly in expectation for the Mongol Hords. The Mongols The Golden Horde Encroched upon Russia and Alania quickly after they took Cumania in early 1230. Russia managed to survive relativly intact but Alania took the brunt of the force. Without Romanian troops they would have certainly fallen. Using my good allies in the Bysantine Empire I not only defended Alania but also took much Russian land lost to the Mongols from these invaders. Another event worthy of mention was the falling of the Georgian Kingdom into my hands. With two kingdoms and all of the de jure duchies in the Empire of Carpathia (since Hungary was now HRE) I created the Empire of Romania (renamed again). The major advantages of this was that noe]w the Mongols couldn't prepare invasions for my entire kingdom (as they could when I was Kingdom of Romania), they could only claim duchies through holy wars. In about 1260 the Mongols were pushed back by the Romanian/Russian/Byzantine attacks. In about 1270 with only 5 provinces, they converted to orthodoxy. Post-Mongols Post Mongol left the Orthodox powers in a very prominant position. It also gave way to the decline of my dynaststic control over the empire. The main point of interest is the republic of the Crimea. This republic rebelled during the Mongol invasion and successfully granted their own independent state. This left most of the empire's coastal provinces in their control. Another major issue was that most of the dynasty were females, mostly by luck, therefore they were a part of the different factions around the world and left a sole group of about 5 males (my character, his brother, two of his sons and my son and heir) living in my empire. This problem slowly began to solve itself with many sons being produced by my heir but the damage was done. A rival family who owned about a third of the land (through their expansion into cumania) was extreamly rich and had declared independence many occasions during the last 100 years. They were unsuccessful but very determined when an oppertunity presented itself. The third major problem was the lack of space. There was little room to attack and expand with the Russian Empire (newly formed) and the Byzantine to the South and HRE to the West, the Mongol were the only real option and they still had a few thousand stacks from their glory days. The Republic were an option but I'd lost by claims to those lands so if I were to attack them it would have to be county by county (de jure), something that is tedious and very wasteful of money. The Timurids This was the final straw. In the 14th Century, the Timurids attacked the north of the Illkarnate (who had successfully conqured much of Arabia) and quickly expanded into the Golden Horde. This then quickly became a war between the Timurids and myself since I was weaker than the Illkanate. Non of my allies came to my aid and Russia/Bysantine forces declined any aid for the Romanians. By this point I had taken back the Rupublic but the usurpation of their duchy destroyed them and their massive wealth I required to hire mercenries. My empire was destroyed in 1353 with the last conquest of my most western county. Additional Notes From this alternate history, you can see my tactics and use them to your advantage so that you don't repeat my mistakes. Playing in this area is extreamly difficult since almost everyone around you is very powerful. My decline was mainly due to not being able to expand enough to defend the empire from eastern forces. I hope you enjoyed this. Moxa9